Mike Gravel was right when he exclaimed “his lips are moving, the President’s lying“. IPS interviewed Chuck Lewis from the Centre for Public Integrity on a report that documents the lies told by the administration to justify invading Iraq.

Eight key players in the George W. Bush administration, including the president himself, made at least 935 false statements in the run-up to and aftermath of the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The analysis shows that Bush made the most false statements of all eight officials. His namesake, who couldn’t even lie about chopping a cherry tree down, must be rolling in his grave!! But who am I kidding? That’s just another lie in America’s history of lies.

I can’t say it better than Mr. Lewis:

What the world needs most, though, is real-time truth, not years later. Maybe, because of this debacle of the past five years, reporters and citizens will become more sceptical and discerning of politicians and those in power.

And while some may dismiss bloggers as being less credible and professional than journalists, journalism as an industry is in a crisis. Mr. Lewis describes the state of U.S. journalism like this:

Not good, emaciated economically, thousands of reporters and editors fired since 2000, still too easily misled, not sufficiently sceptical of officialdom, of government, of power.

In ‘Can Newspaper Journalism Survive Blogs, Fox News, and Karl Rove?‘ David Wessel addresses several of the problems newspapers are facing today, but is rather positive about the future of newspapers and journalism. He also reveals an important validation for blogs: keeping reporters honest.

It’s very hard for the press, if it ever wanted to, to conspire to keep secret the foibles of the president today because some blog will put it out and everybody will be talking about it, and we feel we’ll have to respond.

There are people out there challenging the lies we are told everyday. Dismissing us as not credible or as crazy liberals is just another lie, much like calling extreme environmental activists ‘terrorists’. I don’t see blogs as a replacement for journalism, but as serving a check and balance role and giving ordinary citizens a chance to have their say. Why should we wait for the elite? It’s our freedom too. In my view, the elite only enrich themselves and protect their own interests.